Obama touts middle-class task force led by Biden (or there Obama goes being progressive again)

[phleshdef]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/obama_labor

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has announced a series of executive orders that he says should "level the playing field" for unions in struggles they have with management.

Obama used the occasion at the White House to also formally announce a new White House task force on the problems of middle-class Americans, and installed Vice President Joe Biden as its chairman.

On labor issues, Obama said that among other things he was changing Bush administration policy in a way that will require companies doing contract work for the government to inform workers of their legal rights on the job.

Although his task force centers on the middle class, Obama said that "we're not forgetting the poor." He said his administration wants to make sure low-income people "get a piece" of the American pie "if they're willing to work for it."

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is playing to one of the Democratic Party's most reliable constituencies — organized labor — reversing a number of his predecessor's executive orders that critics regard as anti-union.

Labor leaders were to visit the White House for a second consecutive day Friday, where, a union official said, Obama was to abolish four Bush-era directives that unions opposed and then reintroduce Vice President Joe Biden's task force focused on the middle class.

Both were meant as a way for the new administration to connect with workers at the end of a week that has seen U.S. companies announce thousands more jobs cuts.

"Over the last 100 years the middle class was built on the back of organized labor. Without their weight, heft and their insistence starting in the early 1900s we wouldn't have the middle class we have now, in my view," Biden told CNBC on Thursday. "So I think labor getting a fair share of the pie is part of it."

Officials planned to re-announce a Middle Class Task Force aimed at finding ways to help an economic group that has been hammered by the recession. Biden will lead the task force, comprising a panel of advisers and four Cabinet members.

Among the George W. Bush-era executive orders that Obama was to reverse was one that allowed unionized companies to post signs informing workers that they are allowed to decertify their union. Critics claimed it was unfair because nonunion businesses are not required to post signs letting workers know they are legally allowed to vote for a union.

Two Democratic sources also said Obama would prevent federal contractors from being reimbursed for expenses that were intended to influence workers' decisions to form unions or engage in collective bargaining. A third Obama order would require federal vendors with more than $100,000 in contracts to post workers' rights under the National Labor Relations Act.

The final order would require service contractors at federal buildings to offer jobs to qualified current employees when contracts changed. For instance, rank-and-file workers could continue working on the same federal project even if the administrative contract expired.

The officials disclosed the plans on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to pre-empt the White House's announcements.

Labor leaders also visited the White House on Thursday, where Obama welcomed them to the East Room as he signed his first major piece of legislation, an equal-pay act that organized labor and women's groups championed.

Unions have been lobbying the Obama administration to repeal scores of executive orders they view as hostile to their cause. Officials gave administration officials their top 10 executive orders they wanted to see dismantled quickly.

Many executive orders are enacted and repealed based on which party controls the White House. One of the rules Obama planned to repeal Friday was approved by President George. H.W. Bush, removed by President Bill Clinton and reinstated by the second President Bush.

THIS is progressive governing. THIS is exactly the kind of thing that is the "Change" that Obama talked about for 2 years.

Two weeks in and Obama has all ready made more moves to improve the lives of a majority of Americans, the working class, than Bush made in 8 years.

[CTD]

1. And, honestly, more than Clinton made in 8 yrs too.

I am so pleasantly surprised at how progressively Obama is governing so far.

I do hope DUers cut him a bit of slack when he eventually supports something that isn't as progressive.

[phleshdef]

2. Heh, thats true but I wasn't gonna say it!

[anonymous171]

4. Obama is a master of the Reverse-Clinton

Feint right, go left.

[eleny]

3. kick with thanks

:kick:

[ErinBerin84]

5. want to know how much Politico sucks?

They had the headline as something like "Obama starts Middle Class tax" and then when you clicked, it was "Obama starts Middle Class taX force." Those bastards better have changed it by now.